Opinion: Accountability

Accountability must focus more on improving and less on approving

The thinking that brought about our current accountability system can’t get us out of the problems it has caused,...

JL Dutaut
Les Walton
Opinion: Accountability

Heads’ sharp practices to game Ofsted only raise the stakes

Analysing website traffic to predict Ofsted visits is only the latest form of gaming the system - and such...

JL Dutaut
Seamus Murphy
Opinion: Accountability

Spielman’s offer changes nothing for first and infant schools

Amanda Spielman’s plans to improve inspection are deaf to the framework’s inherent inequity and fall well short of what...

JL Dutaut
David Scott
Opinion: Accountability

High stakes? The fault is not in Ofsted but in ourselves

The biggest problem with Ofsted is the weight we attach to its reports, writes Hugh Greenway, and that’s within...

JL Dutaut
Hugh Greenway
Opinion: Accountability

Ofsted: A better system is possible and the DfE knows it

Colin Diamond sets out what the DfE might do to bring school inspection in line with high-performing systems –...

JL Dutaut
Colin Diamond
Opinion: Accountability

How can partnerships prosper in a competitive system?

New research highlights how local collaborations can work for all students in spite of competition and fragmentation, explain Mel...

JL Dutaut
Mel Ainscow and Paul Armstrong
Opinion: Accountability

Why we’ve ditched the grades from SIAMS inspections

Margaret James explains the decision to remove grades from the SIAMS inspection framework in a move described as ‘radically...

JL Dutaut
Margaret James
Opinion: Accountability

Ofsted reform should focus on inspection reliability first

Our new research casts doubt on the reliability of 'Inadequate' Ofsted judgments, explains Sam Sims, but any attempt at...

JL Dutaut
Sam Sims
Opinion: Accountability

Ofsted’s framework is failing first and infant schools

The only conclusion from the downgrading of so many infant and first schools is that Ofsted’s framework is unfit...

JL Dutaut
David Scott